Editorial: Around the nation

Published Friday, April 15, 2005

Journal Star, Peoria, Ill., on U.S. intelligence work:

In words that are blunt and precise, the latest commission to assess U.S. intelligence work says the spy agencies weren't just wrong about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, they were "dead wrong." ... If our best intelligence is "dead wrong," then how can we attack anyone to keep him from attacking us? But if we see threats where there are none, then might we also not see threats where they really do exist and fail to respond?

On that last point, the report was not encouraging. The errors made with regard to Iraq "are still all too common," the panel said. ... The commission said more spies on the ground are needed as well as more cutting-edge technology. While it didn't attempt to analyze how the nation's leaders judged the data, it did urge that the president be given contrary information routinely, going so far as to recommend a department of contrariness. That it felt necessary to make such a recommendation is instructive. As bedtime reading, this study is sure to induce nightmares. Or in the case of the White House, some sleepless nights to ponder what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again.

The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash., on provisions of the Patriot Act:

... Past American statesmen ranging from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Robert F. Kennedy have pointed out the temptation to combat deplorable practices by adopting them. It's a warning we've been slow to heed, though, as certain Patriot Act provisions demonstrate, not to mention the embarrassing disclosures at Abu Ghraib ... Another glaring breakdown of traditional American principles involves "extraordinary rendition," known to its critics as the outsourcing of torture. The practice dates to the Clinton administration but was widely expanded after Sept. 11, 2001. Under it, the United States turns people suspected of terrorist involvement over to countries who lack America's official scruples about using torture as an interrogation method. ... Still, administration officials refuse to drop the practice because they contend it protects U.S. troops. ... The war against terrorism is no justification for a practice like extraordinary rendition. If that's how we fight for liberty and human rights, it may produce a defeat for terrorism, but it won't be a victory for the United States.